Coalition wants to abandon car industry

In a stunning display of stupidity only now months out from a federal election, the opposition Coalition party has ruled out ongoing protection for the Australian car industry. This is after only this week 200 people at Ford lost their jobs in Victoria. A can't presently think of a more glaring example of a political party shooting itself in the foot. Has the Coalition simply decided it's going to chuck away this coming election. WTF were they thinking coming out with this shit?

THE Coalition has ruled out protection for car manufacturers if elected, prompting government claims it would wreck the industry and cost more than 200,000 jobs.

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said there should be no more blank cheques for the industry.

While there would be some assistance, he said a Coalition government would place much more stringent conditions in return for funding while boosting competitiveness by changing industrial relations and abolishing the carbon price. ''We're not saying no [to investment], let's get it right,'' Mr Hockey said. ''Protection is not the answer.''Read more

You don't have to be a union member, or someone who's lost their job in manufacturing recently here in Australia, to know that the sort of radical capitalist dog eat dog idea of exposing an Australian industry without protection to the rigours of the massive Chinese economy (complete with pathetic wages and conditions) isn't a good idea. Manufacturing is dying here, with much of it heading offshore. This is something understood throughout the general population here. Iconic Australian brands have over the years slowly been moving all their manufacturing to places like China. Every bloody thing is made in China, and sadly the quality of many of the brands sent there for manufacturing has tumbled. Now, right on the back of Ford redundancy's, the coalition states it case of removing what little protection there still is for car manufacturing. Are they insane?

Apart from that, I think many in the community who aren't necessarily associated with any union at all understand the language when the coalition talks about "changing industrial relations". Remember WorkChoices? It wasn't the only issue that turfed Howard out on his ear (becoming the first prime minister to lose his own seat since some bloke in the '20's, which was also because of industrial relations) but it was certainly one of the main ones. 

Then it's the trifecta; the Coalition if winning gov will remove the carbon price. WTF? It's taken years and years to finally get a green system in place in Australia that's actually a positive thing for the environment. It cost Rudd his prime ministership when he abandoned it, his popularity caved in overnight and his position became untenable for the Labor party. Gillard has actually done it, bringing in a carbon price on July 1st. The green industry is now taking off with investment and jobs. So what does the Coalition want to do? Kill all that by removing the Carbon price. Fuck, what a bunch of morons.

Of course the manufacturing issue is high on the agenda in the union world who are representing workers who're losing their jobs left right and centre. I got an email containing an article about it just this week. It's an issue very much on our minds, and I would guess on the minds of many more people than just union members.

Manufacturing got Obama over the line – Australian politicians should heed the call.          Nov 14, 2012

There has been a lot of discussion about the coalition of women, African Americans and Latino voters that supported Obama all of which is true and important. Yet we seem to have missed what pushed the swing states over the line. 

The key to understanding Obama’s victory is the not simply the auto-bailout, but his ability to convince people that American manufacturing is worth supporting because it is in the national interest. That it represents the future. 

Take a look at his speeches. Or his adverts. Many of these were targeted at Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan and used the real stories of manufacturing workers, the lessons of the auto-bailout and contrasted them with the position of Romney who argued that the auto-industry should be allowed to go to the wall. 

Manufacturing was at the heart of Obama’s pitch for re-election. 59 per cent of the population of Ohio supported the auto-bailout. more

There's a little clip from the Obama campaign too. He actually seems engaged and inspiring in this, I guess he realised it was such a huge issue which would resonate with the population.


This must be why Abbott doesn't want to release any Coalition policies at the moment, especially when their poll lead is only 2 or so points now. When he does come out with Coalition policy much of the population recoils in horror. 

(*also posted here).